Wall Street continues to have a tenuous relationship with Blockchain technology. Large banks have recently made statements both for and against the new technology, with some companies like Bank of America already pursuing patents. Problem with privacy Part of the struggle these financial platforms are having with Blockchain technology is the issue of privacy. The key issue for traders is to keep their positions a secret in order to keep other traders and competitors out of the loop. While Blockchain technology provides immutability, it does not provide complete security or anonymity - keys for enterprise level financial adoption. However, the …

The IRS is actively seeking out tax evaders using Bitcoin, employing tools like Chainalysis to unmask them. Many people believe that Bitcoin is anonymous, but it is in fact pseudonymous. All transactions linked to a particular address are visible on the Blockchain, which is public and transparent. However, it is not possible to link a particular wallet address to the real world identity of a person/company without any additional information. While good privacy practices can prevent leakage of information, there is always a point where Bitcoin transactions touch the traditional monetary system (when you use it in a store or …

Prepared in partnership with Genesis Mining. The October 28 launch of Zcash has increased the community interest in the privacy-focused cryptocurrency. As Bitcoin Core prepares its own privacy feature Mimblewimble, Zcash hopes to become the first cryptocurrency that is “all about privacy.” Founded by cryptography expert Zooko Wilcox and advised by prominent figures including Vitalik Buterin, Zcash is a cryptocurrency based on an innovative cryptography called zkSNARKs. Initially, the concept of Zcash was introduced by Wilcox to provide a sense of anonymity between senders, receivers, and the value of transactions. Moreso, the transparency of public Blockchains allows anyone to trace …

Some people blame Bitcoin for its use in criminal situations. In the past we have seen Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road creator’s case as well as Trendon Shavers’ case, who has plead guilty to running a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme starting back in 2011 until 2015. All these revelations were based in the Blockchain that Bitcoin transactions create. Academic researchers and Bitcoin experts helped law enforcement put an end in these cases. But are Bitcoin transactions traceable? Traceable unless designed not to be Derick Smith, Architect at Protocol in Blockchain Solutions, comments: “They are traceable unless they are expressly designed not to …

Note: This is the second part of How NOT to build an Orwellian Reputation System. For part 1, go here. *** Step Three: make it pseudonymous and opt in Lets face it. Using personal, or even biometric data as the ‘security’ foundation of an international, online, non retractable reputation system is a terrible idea. Being hacked once could be a life changing disaster and our personal security is far too compromised already. Today, if you ask any random person if they believe they have any privacy online, they are very likely to give you back a flat ‘NOPE’. Corporations the …

NXT, the finance 2.0 blockchain platform, has voted unanimously to implement CoinShuffle, a coin mixing anonymity technique to NXTcoin and other 'Monetary System' tokens. Implementation is expected on the next major release. Landslide vote A vote was posed to the community this July 18 on whether the coin mixing implementation would apply just to MonetarySystem (MS) tokens or also to NXT's core token, NXTcoin. After only a day, the community's response was incontrovertible with nearly 100% of the votes supporting coin mixing implementation to NXTcoin. The votes will be weighed on July 26 based how much NXT each voter holds. …

The hardware wallet Trezor has been integrated as a password-less login option to Bitex, Coinpayments, CoinSimple, Osclass, and Strip4Bit. The Trezor login replaces the traditional email/username/password approach, and developers hope that more sites will add Trezor as a login option. BitStamp, Drupal, Slush Pool, and even Wordpress are on the “planning to integrate” list. In addition, Trezor now supports Dash. This addition follows previously supported cryptocurrencies Litecoin, Viacoin, Mazacoin, and colored bitcoins. These coin types are supported via Trezor's integration with the wallets Coinprism, Electrum, Encompass, Multibit HD, and Mycelium (which Trezor staff now calls “Trezor apps”). Marek “Slush” Palatinus, …

Blockchain-based record keeping service Factom has today announced its latest partnership with major US medical services provider HealthNautica. The deal, revealed exclusively to Cointelegraph, will see HealthNautica documents, which range from medical bills and client-physician communications to claims and disputes, imprinted on the blockchain, helping add security and guarantee authenticity of sequence of events. “We are excited to insert Factom’s technology into the healthcare industry, as one of our goals while developing this software was to offer a way to ensure the integrity of medical records, while still maintaining patient privacy,” Factom’s president Peter Kirby said in an exclusive press …

Large European companies may eye Bitcoin as an option for securing their data and keeping it private from the United States, reports the Logistics Viewpoints blog. Steve Banker wrote about the security issue early last year for the blog, following an article in IT World that noted companies increasingly want their data “walled off” from the NSA: “Around the world, many people, Europeans in particular, were outraged by the Edward Snowden revelations that showed the extent to which the US government had access to the world’s electronic stream of communication.” Banker is a supply chain and logistics analyst who writes …